Don't Mind Me... I'm Just Ranting
A few thoughts as I get ready to go back to work for a couple of weeks before my body completely shuts down from the radiation:
1) I love college football. My beloved Nebraska Cornhuskers are probably going to a New Years Day bowl, and the arguments caused by a simple failure to set up a playoff system in the one major sport that doesn't have it enables those of us who love to argue to really enjoy this time of year. The local Boise State Broncos completed another undefeated regular season last night, and it makes me wonder -- why do the people who put together bowl games think that people would want to see two-loss Ohio State suffer another BCS embarassment rather than watch what promises to be a completely non-boring BSU team?
2) I go back and forth over who is more sanctimonious and annoying -- whiny progressives or whiny social conservatives. Today I'm leaning towards progressives, because morialekafa, the "crazy old uncle in the attic" of the Idaho lefty blogosphere, included this little nugget of "wisdom" in his daily rant in response to yesterday's tragic death of the worker in the New York Walmart:
Our profligate ways have now painfully caught up with us, as evidenced by our now virtual dependence on Wal Mart. Even people who would not have been caught dead there previously are now flocking there in droves (alas, I am one of them). When I enter a Wal Mart I feel I am entering a giant warehouse full of losers. The clerks are losers, working for small wages and few benefits, the shoppers are losers, looking for the cheapest bargains they can find.Wow... elitist much? This follows a statement where he mentioned that he bet that Brits, French, Germans, Russians, and Iranians would never trample anyone. Soccer and Iranian funeral violence notwithstanding, I'm really wondering if progressives who rail against all these horrors of American society ever really think through what their proposals would lead to. Would they outlaw sales? Is wanting to spend less really bad? Does spending more make you a "winner"? Would they outlaw concerts by The Who? Or should we just not buy anything and live off the land and love each other, like back in some earlier mythical century that has never existed in human history? It seems to me that, for now, progressives seem to want to outlaw and control more human behavior than even the most Old Testament-centered social conservatives. I'm sure that will change soon, though. (Please note that I haven't lost all perspective. I recognize that, when all is said and done, the truly most sanctimonious and annoying people are the "realists" like me who like to mock and belittle the people on the fringes.)
3) People continue to speak completely different languages, politically. Take the recent passage of Proposition 8 in California to overturn the decision of the California Supreme Court to establish the new right of homosexual marriage. Opponents of the measure say that it "takes away the civil rights" of gays and lesbians. I disagree, and here's why: both before the California Supreme Court case and after the passage of Prop 8, every adult Californian had the exact same right as every other, granted by legislative action -- the right (if not imprisoned) to marry exactly one consenting unmarried person of the opposite sex who was of age and not too closely related. Just because gays and lesbians choose not to exercise that right doesn't mean it is lost to them. It's as if one were to say that my wife had her abortion "rights" taken away from her because she chose not to get an abortion (my feelings on the subject of a "right" to abortion/privacy can be found here). The fact that she's not been given some closely-related other "right" to make up for the fact that she didn't exercise that one doesn't take away from her the original "right". The unvarnished truth is that the right to marry someone of the same sex would be a brand new right, and if some legislature wants to enact that I'd accept the result. Please just don't expect that I'll willingly accept accusations that I "hate" homosexuals just because I believe that the process for expanding our civil rights should have a legislative component. And just because us Mormons once supported polygamy (over 100 years ago) doesn't mean that we now have to support all new forms of marriage. None of us were alive back then, and at the same time Mormons supported polygamy, remember that Democrats supported Jim Crow and slavery.
posted by Bubblehead at 10:32 AM
26 Comments:
This comment has been removed by the author.
11/29/2008 1:41 PM
Still got diehard white power knotheads out there. More and more showing up on hate websites since Obama election. Can't ignore FLDS communities either. They certainly don't help LDS community image. As a California resident I will tell you that I didn't like out-of-staters bankrolling prop 8. Perhaps some of us California folks ought to bankroll a campaign against FLDS behavior in the states where it exists. What do you think? Personally I really don't care one way or the other about prop 8. or FLDS behavior.
Just a note of interest related to previous posts regarding the presidential campaign. Trinity County voted overwhelmingly democratic this year for the first time since 1992. In 1992 a majority of Trinity County voters went for Ross Perot. In prior elections Trinity County generally voted republican. In retrospect I think the results of the polling I conducted with patrons in the "Diggins", a local blue collar watering hole in Weaverville, back in September and October was spot on with the results of the presidential election.
May have to start my own polling company now. Say, there's an Idea! Could be my retirement job in that I'll be retired (again) from Military Sealift Command effective December 1, 2008.
My two cents, and keep a zero bubble........
the baldheaded DBFTMC(SS)USNRET
11/29/2008 1:45 PM
Not touching the gay marriage one; I have found it's either something you get or you don't.
As for the other--if Wal-Mart shoppers are losers, and you're in Wal-Mart shopping, that makes you...wait for it...a loser. An elitist loser, but a loser nonetheless. Pity some folks need that spelled out to them.
For living in a city with three universities (soon to be four) and countless community colleges, there's not a single football team to be found. 'S'okay, though, the Spurs are starting to win now.
11/29/2008 2:57 PM
I think it would be perfectly OK if Californians wanted to contribute to some anti-polygamy campaign. As far as it relates to the LDS Church, since the relationship of the LDS Church to the FLDS is like that of the Catholic Church to the Lutheran (it broke off generations ago and now is completely separate), I don't see how it would cause Mormons any problems.
11/29/2008 3:54 PM
Bubblehead, I feel so much better that the lunatic-fringe progressives are on your shit-list these days. As one of those nutty socons (ok, maybe slightly left of the nuttiest of them), I would love to see the legislative branch take up issues like gay marriage, abortion rights, legalization, etc (you know, social issues).
Since our system of government was designed to make the legislative branch more answerable and sensitive to public opinion, I don't think any thinking American could argue too much with decisions, when made by the legislators they elect.
Of course, the ballot initiative process in some states takes this legislative tactic directly to the people (I like the ballot initiative process, personally). Not sure how it works in most states, but in Georgia, the process requires the legislator to draft the changes to the state constitution. I am woefully ignorant of the exact procedure beyond that...
But, I digress.
What I object to is the courts telling us what we must do, divining "rights" where none ever existed, and none were intended. Sure would be nice to debate some of these topics and try a little Federalism in this country.
Alas, I fear 4 or 8 years of Obamism may put an end to Federalism.
11/29/2008 6:35 PM
No offense to Idaho here, but you do have to consider strength of schedule. Going undefeated in the WAC isn't exactly the same as doing so in the SEC or Big Ten. I'm madder about Auburn being denied a few years back after doing just that.
11/29/2008 9:45 PM
My sister works at Wal-Mart and she is a loser too!
11/29/2008 11:16 PM
My response is here
11/30/2008 3:44 AM
Papaya Mom, Please stick to fruits as your topic - logic isn't your strong suit.
11/30/2008 11:55 AM
Don't worry, Bubblehead! Neither you nor the whiny social conservatives are nearly as annoying as the progressives who you skillfully mock and belittle.
11/30/2008 11:57 AM
Now, now, let's be nice. I for one appreciated Papaya Mom's response, and I'll answer her thoughtful opinions soon. My guess is she won't like what I have to say, because the comparison of gay marriage equality to the old miscegenation laws is, I think, one of the strongest cards the pro-gay marriage supporters have to play. It all comes down to the assumptions one makes, and it appears that Papaya Mom and I approach it from a different basis, as to whether sexuality is an immutable characteristic like race. As one who believes in the theories of Darwin, I find it difficult to believe that some gene or group of genes, the entire effect of which would tend to make one less likely to pass on those genes to succeeding generations, would long survive by Darwinian natural selection. I'll expand on that more later.
11/30/2008 1:40 PM
Bubblehead, Don't mind me I'm just ranting Con't.
why do you care about prop 8? It's a California issue. You don't live here and I suspect you don't plan on visiting either. it's a state issue regardless of what the media says and what your values are. For all those who dislike California politics, stay home!! We don't need you, your opinions or $$$ here. It's our issue to wrestle with.
No disrespect intended, however LDS as well as Catholic church are being sued for meddleing in politics. If it was just California religous people, wouldn't be so bad. It's the mobilized pro-prop 8 out-of-state LDS and Catholic Church thats pissed off a lot of Californians. LDS has enough problems here in California with perceived connections to FLDS. Now the church is being picketed in a number of communities re: involvement in Prop 8 and taken to court about political activities.
Do you think the out-of-state LDS supporters of prop 8 thought through the consequences of involving the Church in California politics, or do you think they just didn't care about the consequences?
I just think the entire issue is stupid. If you don't like whats happening in california, don't come here!!
My two cents, and keep a zero bubble............
DBFTMC(SS)USNRET
11/30/2008 7:21 PM
Well, Joel - he sure did call 'em losers.
When I enter a Wal Mart I feel I am entering a giant warehouse full of losers. The clerks are losers, working for small wages and few benefits, the shoppers are losers, looking for the cheapest bargains they can find. Our culture is a loser as it is inevitably being reduced to the lowest common denominators.
"A giant warehouse of losers"..... that was a real out loud laugh line.
11/30/2008 7:28 PM
DBFTMC(SS)USNRET, how is it that you can be wrong on practically every single point of discussion ever mentioned on this blog? It amazes me, yet, there you are - wrong again.
I won't even mention the moral issues, but you stated: "For all those who dislike California politics, stay home!! We don't need you, your opinions or $$$ here. It's our issue to wrestle with."
As long as my state doesn't have to recognize those "marriages," ZERO of my tax dollars go to BAIL OUT Kalifornia - a state where the DEMOCRATIC majority w/ help from a RINO Guvernator is virtually bankrup, ZERO of my medical insurance premiums go to cover people involved in these "marriages" after they pick up something at the local glory hole, then I guess you've got a point. But until you address ALL of those for starters, it does matter for those who no longer live in that crap hole. . . .
11/30/2008 7:59 PM
Hmm...I must be a loser too, since I go to Wally World about once every three months for socks, boxer briefs, T-shirts, gatorade, rifle and shotgun ammo, a case of Coors, and maybe a new watch battery when needed. Yeah, it's a rat race from hell when one enters the store...so that's why I try and go early in the morning to avoid all the other redneck-losers I might encounter.
So as soon as I set foot into a Wally World location, I guess I automatically become a loser. Atleast it's nice to know where I fit in occasionally...Lol.
I'm glad I don't pay too much attention to the all knowing jack-ass progressives or the anti-social conservatives...Lol.
J.
11/30/2008 8:14 PM
I have two problems with the Prop 8 discussion here. First, that all rights are granted by the legislature. By that logic Africans were not denied the right to freedom until Honest Abe penned it for them, nor women denied the right to vote before Susan B., etc. Seems to me that some rights are self-evident, the legislature be damned.
Secondly, lots of folks seem to have decided for themselves the issue of nature versus nurture in the case of sexual orientation. BZ! Write it up and submit it to Scientific American, because the scientific community is far from obtaining the evidence you have used to make up your mind. And, no the evolution argument won't do it. Dozens of disease causing organisms kill their hosts more often than not, a lousy Darwinian strategy. Perhaps the genetic origin of homosexuality is recessive, and therefore passed from generation to generation without expression, like albinism,or with incomplete expression like sickle-cell anemia, which is fatal as a homozygous condition. There are plenty of other examples as well. Plus, researchers have proposed some interesting ideas as to why evolution can not discount a genetic component to homosexuality. (I planned to include a reference here, but when I Googled it I got too many to pick just one... try it.)
The one thing I do agree with whole heartedly is that campaigns in state funded ballots should be paid for strictly by state residents.
The two toughest problems in politics are keeping democrats out of your wallet and republicans out of your bedroom!
11/30/2008 11:10 PM
I will never forget my drives to East Hampton Long Island. I would be going by the 7/11 stores, stopping for coffee...there would be hundreds of illegal aliens waiting for a pickup to their jobs. There was a tremendous construction boom going on all over the Long island Hampton's. This was at the top of the Wall Street bubble....you know, all those phony billionaires. All that new construction and the expensive manions was drawing the illegal immagrant from all over the world. They were living ten to a room in the local housing.
I got a kick out of that with the rich...the most expensive housing in the USA...and the cheapest slave labor. The magnitude of this was breath taking. Like any of these illegals would ever live in the Hamptons and have their kids go to their beautiful schools
So on Long Island Housing prices have been sky rocketing...they is a shortage of housing. A lot of NYC low paid slave labor...the whites, blacks, browns and yellows live in this area. The local whites feel the newcomers are accepting lower wage jobs...stealing their jobs and increasing violence and law breaking.
I bet you the magnitude of the influx of illegal aliens is the highest in the Northeast in Long Island...that is why the rising tensions between the aliens and the locals. Economic opportunity has been declining and collapsing...tensions are rising.
The is a huge black population that's been in the area for many decades. The illegal immigrants are in direct competition for job against the blacks...the blacks feel a lost of economic opportunity. I bet you the blacks are pissed off with their lot in life.
Right, this store is in a black area...there was a high population of blacks in line.
I'll bet you construction has stopped on the eastern side of Long Island. I bet you the illegals are disparate for income...it's affecting everyone. The more wealthy whites must be losing their job... and walking into lower and lower job wages and less dignifying jobs. The whites are pissed off. The blacks are pissed off and the illegals are frightened.
12/01/2008 6:11 AM
I like the "meet gay couples" ad on the sidebar with the two guys in boxers hugging. Yay Google Ads!
12/01/2008 7:30 AM
You have to love the Liberals (I refuse to go along with their attempt to mask themselves under the "new" moniker of 'Progressive') who are raging over out of State support from the Various church groups (LDS, Catholic, etc)...without considering that those Churches operate legally in the State, so have just as much Right supporting or opposing what the State is doing, especially Laws that could effect them.
Also note that the Liberals don't condem, much less mention, the millions poured into their side from such out of state people and groups like Robert W. Wilson (a retired Brooklyn hedge-fund manager; 1.2 million), David Maltz (a Cleveland philanthropist; 1.1 million), Bruce Bastian (a software executive from Utah; 1 million), and don't forget the plethora of daytime talk-show hosts who are Chicago and New York based.
If the left does not like it then they should take it to the ballot box and make their case to the people. Instead they drag it through the Courts where they judge-shop the case and force their opinion on everyone else. Thats why Prop 8 came about...because the Left used the Courts to overturn Prop 22.
12/01/2008 8:53 AM
It's all about choice: One can choose to enter into a monogamous marital relationship (true marriage), one can choose to practice bestiality, or one could choose, as Andrew Dice Clay used to say, to find "love" in another man's hairy a$$hole. Your choice . . .
12/01/2008 10:23 AM
For the two anonymous posters,
california Prop 8 changes the state constitution. Thats what the issue is about here. It is going back to the state supreme court and it will be thrown out again.
Re: out of state $$$, ALL out of state money, pro or con should have stayed home.
Re: churchs and political activity; you know the issue about that one. Want to play politics? Loose your tax exempt status. Thats OK by me. Whatever happened to separation of church and state? Guess we'll find that out in court as well.
Bottom line: How does the California prop 8 issue affect you personally? Just as I expected. It doesn't, so why do you care?? It's an issue that will play out in California and not in your state, what ever that is.
My two cents, and keep a zero bubble......
DBFTMC(SS)USNRET
12/01/2008 3:13 PM
DBFTMC(SS)USNRET - Happy Retirement Day (again)!
I was going to respond with relish to all these issues I've raised -- and I've got some good points, believe you me -- when I realized that, throughout this weekend, I really haven't been feeling like myself; my posts here and elsewhere have ended up much meaner than I intended them to be. I think the chemo and radiation might be playing tricks with my brain chemistry, so I've decided to take a break for a few months from snark so I don't unintentionally offend someone; I want to make sure it's the real "me" making these comments. More later in a separate post. For the rest of you, please continue the discussion (respectfully, if possible).
12/01/2008 3:28 PM
Joel,
Appreciate you!! Feels good to be finished with the Military Sealift Command part of my life for reasons mentioned in other posts on your blog. I've got plenty to do to keep me busy. the wife has got a honey-do-list that will keep me going for a while. Currently transcribing an audio tape oral history of a WWII MotorMac on Amphibs who participated in the Gilberts, Marshalls, and Mariana's invasions. Getting the deck plate stuff is a whole lot different than the "official" histories. got a post WWII Marine Cook in Japan and Korea next. Gonna get the real skinny about how he fed the troops. Finally got a WWII Submariner in Oregon who took the USS Skate SS-306 to Bikini in 1946 for the atom bomb tests and after test experiences.
Picked up on your "snarkiness" with this post and felt the need to give you a little "push-back".
Re: the subject of this post, GomerB, in California rights are enshrined in the state constitution, not granted by the legislature or by proposition put on a ballot initative. Thats the reason the state supreme court weighed in and will weigh in again. And one more comment for Anon 1, We don't want or need any of your financial assistance here in california. Arny is doing just fine trying to get the knuckle heads in Sacramento
to get to work on the budget fix. I know you aren't aware of another inititive passed by California voters that took redistricting away from the politicians and put it in the hands of a redistricting board. it just wasn't sexy enough for the press to go after like prop 8 was. Passage of that prop is a hell of a lot more important for us here in California than prop 8 ever will be.
Bubblehead, keep a focus on killin-that-cancer in your gut. I know it ain't easy, and I don't take your comments personal. God don't give you any more than you can handle, and you can handle this!
Keep a zero bubble shipmate,
DBFTMC(SS)USNRET
12/01/2008 9:44 PM
As one who believes in the theories of Darwin, I find it difficult to believe that some gene or group of genes, the entire effect of which would tend to make one less likely to pass on those genes to succeeding generations, would long survive by Darwinian natural selection.
See, to me homosexuality makes perfect sense from an evolutionary (if not Darwinian) standpoint. It--like infertility--helps to control population. Gay men & lesbians having babies via artificial insemination is a new construct, as are IUI & IVF and all classes of fertility drugs. Both stand to attach some limit to the number of children born in any one area.
Nor is there any logical reason to assume homosexuality is chosen. Because then I must accept as gospel that gay sex is so good that being ostracized from your family and community if not outright physically attacked (my best friend is gay and all of this has happened to him--he has a murderer in his family whom he is ranked less than, because he's gay) is considered a fair trade-off. Makes no sense.
Further, I simply fail to understand the furor over gay marriage. What, exactly, is the fear here? That gay men will marry and stabilize relationships? Isn't that what we want? Gay marriage isn't going to destroy marriage as we know it, nor cheapen heterosexual marriage.
Honestly, I saw rather enough in my days as a Navy wife to assert without question that it's heterosexuals who are cheapening marriage. (It was heterosexuals who ended mine, in point of fact.)
12/01/2008 9:53 PM
I don't think anyone should be too pissed about the $$ from out of state. This seems like another example of the losing side (my side incidently) complaining that the process was stacked against them, when they just failed to convince enough people to vote against it. I have a problem with the outcome of the initiative, not the way the mainstream part of each side went about campaigning.
I think a better question for those folks who opposed it is why do you feel threatened by gay marriage? Honestly, what on earth will change in your life because a bunch of people you probably don't know are going to get married?
12/01/2008 11:19 PM
My shared observations:
(1) "Marriage" issue:
"Want to protect marriage? No problem. Outlaw divorce."
-- Ex SSN Eng
(2) "Wal-Mart" issue:
“Because here’s something else that’s true. In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And an outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing to worship — be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of ethical principles — is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.”
-- David Foster Wallace
12/02/2008 3:07 AM
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